Claude Duty followed his successful musical film Filles
perdues, cheveux gras (2002) with this comparatively uninspired comedy-drama, the
latest in what seems like a deluge of “town to country / change of lifestyle” films to
have landed on the big screen over the last five or so years. Whilst the film
is attractively shot and has a few engaging sequences, the plethora of obvious clichés
does weigh it down and diminish its worth as an original piece of cinema. It doesn't
help that the two lead characters are underwritten and played without any real depth or
enthusiasm. Even stars like Bulle Ogier and Julie Depardieu have a hard time breathing
life into the dull and predictable narrative.
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Tired of their stressful Parisian lifestyle, Caroline and Bertrand decide to start a new
life, running a traditional gîte in deepest Provence. It is not long before
they start to question the wisdom of this move - the buildings are in a state of near-dilapidation,
their friend and supposed partner Sophie has walked out on them, and they are but a stone's
throw from a far more attractive holiday home, catering for gay men. Will this change
be as good as a rest, or the start of a nightmare..?
Since the 1920s, Hollywood has dominated the film industry, but that doesn't mean American cinema is all bad - America has produced so many great films that you could never watch them all in one lifetime.
In his letters to his friends and family, Franz Kafka gives us a rich self-portrait that is surprisingly upbeat, nor the angst-ridden soul we might expect.
Continental Films, quality cinema under the Nazi Occupation
At the time of the Nazi Occupation of France during WWII, the German-run company Continental produced some of the finest films made in France in the 1940s.